27 Weeks

Non-eventful pregnancy appointments happening around here. So thankful for that. My most recent appointment I assured Phil that he didn't need to come. It was just a quick measure, urine and blood pressure check appointment with the midwife. One thing that I have REALLY grown to love about my Dr's office is I have hardly ever had to wait! Most of my appointments have been first thing in the morning so maybe that helps. No chance yet to get behind. So at my most recent appointment my midwife was hung up in postpartum at the hospital. Another great thing about my Dr's office is that it is attached to the hospital. So the Dr's and nurses can can easily walk back and forth between the two. Since Dr. Wheeler (high risk Dr.) was already in the office he did my appointment which was entirely an ultrasound. It is his regular practice to do an ultrasound at every appointment. So I got a peek at Baby Girl!

Everything was fine and she is still a girl! I guess no worries about a surprise on that one?! Heart beat was perfect and she is growing great and measuring about a week ahead. Lots of growth in all the right places. Pretty good news considering the 1% chance that Dr. Wheeler had given us in the beginning that this pregnancy would make it beyond August! The original diagnosis seems so long ago. Was it actually a dream?

I am still having dreams. I know that vivid dreams are common during pregnancy. My most common dream is that I am bleeding which has never actually happened to me during a pregnancy. I guess that fear is hanging on strong from the original miscarriage prediction. I must have prepared myself a little to much for that one? The other dream is getting bad or bizarre news from the midwife. I will never forgot her attitude/face/etc. that first day that I met her. I am doing my best to not hold that against her (not her fault) but you have no control over your dreams right?

I have also been thinking much more about how we were offered the option to terminate at 9 and 10 weeks. It was never a real option in our minds but it does add to my emotions over this entire pregnancy. I have read accounts of woman that terminated their pregnancy over a cystic hygroma and justified by saying it was the "humane" thing to do. As far as the research that I did on my own I found that a cystic hygroma is not painful. Babies can be born with it (a fluid filled sack under the skin) and it can later be removed. An inconvenience yes but not life threatening.

My emotions ran high the other night as I was watching "The Little Couple." The Dr's were able to harvest two eggs from the lead character and were able to grow 2 embryos from the eggs. One of the embryos grew normally and one had an extra chromosome. They were visibly sad. I started to wonder what would happen to that embryo? That person? It made me think of our Turners diagnosis (missing an x chromosome) and remembered how relieved I was that our baby had a chance at survival. I realized for the first time that there are people out there that never even get the chance to be a person. I know this is happening all of the time but suddenly it all became very personal.

Sorry, not trying to get weird on you. Just recording my thoughts in case someone out there is going through something similar. Not all of my thoughts and feelings are normal, happy, or positive. It's a journey for sure. Just trying to be honest.

Micah can say cheese for the camera now! (Geeze!)

Pulled Pork - Freezer Cooking Recipe

Ingredients:

large pork butt or shoulder
2 liters of 7 Up
barbecue sauce of choice
buns

Place pork in crock pot or roaster on high for 4-6 hours. Pour 2 liter of 7 Up over the pork until the meat is covered. Periodically check on pork by poking it with a fork. Once it is done (like falling apart done) remove pork from the roaster and place on a platter. Proceed to pull/shred the pork with a fork in each hand. Scoop pork into ziplock freezer bags. We did 3 cups per bag. Freeze pork.

Preparation Instructions:

Thaw pork. Best way is to pull it out of the freezer the night before and put it in the refrigerator. Add your barbeque sauce of choice to the pork (once it is thawed) and thoroughly mix. Microwave on high 2-4 minutes until heated through. Serve on buns!

Read more about our freezer cooking day here.

Hair Cuts - Micah's First!

2 Little boys with freshly cut hair + 1 pregnant Mama

"Geeze" (cheese)

Chicken Enchilades

Freezer Cooking Recipe

This recipe will make 12 meals - If you have 4 people cooking that makes 3 meals per family

Adjust the quantities accordingly if you have less people cooking.

Chicken Enchiladas

-2 Cans Members Mark 50oz Chicken Breast – (Sams)

-12 onions small

-12 garlic cloves

-1 gallon Salsa – Ortega Medium (Sams)

-5 ½ packages of Cream Cheese (Meijer or Sams)

-Ground Cumin

-12 cups of Cheese (1 Colby Jack Shredded, Bakers & Chef Brand, Sams)

-120 flour tortillas

Saute onions and garlic in two large skillets. Add the cumin, cream cheese, half of the gallon of salsa, and canned chicken. Mix everything together over medium heat until combined. Scoop a spoonful of chicken mixture into the middle of a tortilla shell. Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese over the mixture and roll up the tortilla. Place 8-10 rolled up tortillas in a 9 x 13 (disposable) baking dish. Cover baking dish with 2 sheets of aluminum foil and attach baking and thawing instructions to the foiled lid. Place in the freezer or refrigerator until ready to take home!

Divide up the remaining salsa in Ziploc bags and do the same with the cheese. You can freeze both of these. You will use them on baking day.

Baking Instructions:

Thaw in refrigerator overnight. Cover enchiladas with salsa and shredded cheddar cheese and bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Garden "Furprise"

In pitch dark and in the cold we frantically harvested whatever was left of my garden in fear of frost. I made my plea for help to Phil and I felt like the Little Red Hen. "Well, then I will harvest it myself said the Little Red Hen and she did." And then I will eat it all myself too! Probably not but I think that I have eaten all of the carrots myself so far.

Which by the way, the carrots were a HUGE surprise. The few that I had pulled up more recently were tiny. They might have kept growing too but I played it safe and just harvested everything!

Apparently my garden has been LOVING all of this rain and colder weather! Plus I have been a little burnt out on the garden and hadn't checked on things for a while. I knew that watermelon had been baking so I finally picked it.

The broccoli was a surprise too. I thought it had been done producing a month ago...

I went ahead and picked all the little tomatoes too. I was afraid that they would be the most vulnerable to the frost?

So now for the great tomato experiment. Anyone know the best way to proceed from here? Should I sit them out in the sun each day or just let them do their own thang?

Phil did eventually join me when I was halfway done. He saved the day with a giant paper bag for the big tomatoes! I am thankful he did because I swear that you can hear scary noises from the Boy Scouts Haunted Castle. I was getting freaked out in the dark with only a flashlight and Sanibel!